“Fortnite” Officially Confirmed for Switch

Amidst all the rumours, “Fortnite” has officially been confirmed for the Nintendo Switch. It is available to download and play as of 10 am PST on June 12.

After the immediate success of “PlayerUnknowns’ Battlegrounds,” Epic Games was quick to announce a free-to-play add-on to their game “Fortnite: Save the World.”

Their 100 man battle royale has since taken the world by storm, quickly becoming one of the most viewed games on Twitch.tv. Its focus on obtaining crafting material and building structures for defense and mobility adds to the skill ceiling of the game, and introduces nuance and complexity to each frantic firefight as players attempt to out-build each other. The game is already out on other consoles, and should quickly become one of the biggest online games the Nintendo Switch has to offer.

The game will also feature cross-play with players on PC and Xbox One, which allows friends playing on different platforms to team up and enjoy escaping the storm together. Helping this is the ability to party up in voice chat through the headphone jack of the Nintendo Switch if your headset has an integrated microphone. This seems to bypass the Nintendo Switch Online app for smartphones, and will please players who don’t want to have extra wires running across the living room.

It remains to be seen whether a Nintendo Online subscription will be required once the service launches in September.